Kukla's Korner Hockey

Feaster had been under the gun at different times during his tenure with the Flames, most notably back in January when, after the lockout had been settled, he signed a restricted free agent, Ryan O'Reilly to an offer sheet, unaware that he had played a handful of games in Russia's Kontinental Hockey League after the lockout ended. Luckily for the Flames, the Colorado Avalanche, the team that owned O'Reilly's NHL rights, matched the offer. Otherwise, Calgary would have been forced to put O'Reilly on waivers, lost him to an NHL team and would have forfeited their No. 1 pick in the 2013 entry draft, which they'd used to select Sean Monahan....

Burke said that his primary directive when joining the Flames was to assess the organization and he had spent the first 60 days of his tenure doing that. And while Feaster made some moves that he approved of, Burke thought that in order to achieve the team's long-term goals - to win a Stanley Cup - changes in the front office were needed.

"We needed to make a change to get to the next level, which is why we took the steps that we did," he said. "Jay's a friend. It's not fun to fire a friend ...This is all about having a parade. It seems very distant on a day like today ... but that's what this is about."

Burke said he wanted a team with more size and "truculence - there, I said it" and that was one area in which he and Feaster didn't see eye to eye. He thought the Flames were too small, which may not bode well for the future of Michael Cammalleri with the team, an unrestricted free agent after this season.